ETYM Cf. French joaillerie.
Objects worn for ornament, such as rings, brooches, necklaces, pendants, earrings, and bracelets. Jewelry has been made from a wide variety of materials, including precious metals, gemstones, amber, teeth, bone, glass, and plastics.
History of Western jewelry.
3rd millennium BC.
Babylonian styles and metalworking techniques reached the Aegean. The Minoans in Crete used the filigree technique, and made large ornaments of embossed gold, silver, and electrum, featuring mythical subjects.
Hellenistic period (from c. 330 BC) Widespread use of colored stones and glass, and dipped enamel earrings (metal core dipped into molten glass and then shaped with regular glassworking techniques); also animal- or human-headed gold earrings.
Western Roman Empire.
The Romans were passionate collectors and wearers of gold jewelry and finely engraved gemstone cameos; they were the first to use rings as a sign of betrothal. Hooped earrings threaded with beads and other forms developed, also gold hairpins and bronze fibulae (brooches) based on Celtic forms.
Medieval period.
Most jewelry was restricted to court and ecclesiastical circles. Byzantine influence led to much enameling. Crowns, buckles, clasps, and brooches used to fasten cloaks were decorated with enameled heraldic motifs. Jeweled embroidery was used for ecclesiastical vestments and ceremonial gloves.
Late-14th-century Europe.
Jewelry became more luxurious and was worn for its decorative value and as a display of wealth, rather than as a functional accessory to dress.
Renaissance.
Many more techniques of gemcutting were developed to increase sparkle; many devotional rings were worn, and more necklaces and bracelets appeared as women's sleeves were cut wider and necklines became lower. Pendants adorned necklaces, hair, and headdresses—some opened up to reveal religious scenes in miniature. Rosaries were worn as necklaces. Auspicious objects such as jeweled Renaissance pomanders were believed to protect against plague.
17th century.
Memorial jewelry incorporating woven or plaited hair first appeared. Fashionable women wore strings of pearls.
18th century.
Matching sets of jewelry (parure) were worn by fashionable women, comprising earrings, brooch, necklace, and bracelet or stomacher. Daytime jewelry consisted of paste and non-precious gemstones; foil-backed enamels were made into buckles and miniature receptacles attached to belts; the best of these were made in France, but copies were made elsewhere in Europe.
19th century.
Etiquette proscribed dress jewels from daytime wear; tortoiseshell, jet, coral, and ivory were worn instead. From the 1860s novel jewelry was increasingly worn— insects, locomotives, and household objects and tools. Arts and Crafts and Art Nouveau jewelry was much simpler in design, emphasising organic forms. Around 1900 more conventional but superbly crafted jewelry appeared, designed by Tiffany and Cartier.
Late 19th century–20th century.
Synthetic gemstones developed along with the chemical industry and polymer science. As the 20th century progressed, costume jewelry was increasingly worn for effect, and from the 1930s onward everyday, inexpensive materials such as steel, Bakelite, and other kinds of plastic.
Silver jewelry in simple modern forms designed by Georg Jansen was influential. In the 1970s a new generation of jewelers, trained in art schools rather than through apprenticeship in the trade, placed emphasis on new design ideas rather than value of materials; much contemporary jewelry is affordable and fun.
1. An adornment (as a bracelet or ring or necklace) made of precious metals and set with gems (or imitation gems); SYN. jewellery.
2. Such adornments in general, spoken of collectively; SYN. gems, necklace, bracelet, ring, jewellery.